Psychopathic Traits Recognized in Teens may Change

A new study looks at the psychopathic traits found in teenagers.

As most youths are concerned about other's feelings, a small group of youths may not always express psychopathic personality traits that that are associated with adult psychopathy, a much more serious personality disorder that's commonly linked with antisocial behavior and criminality.

Lead study author Selma Salihovic and her research team at Orebro University in Sweden hoped to show this via small groups of youth and the examination of psychopathic traits.

The study notes that while previous research has tried to describe the relative stability of adolescent psychopathic traits, this research is the first of its kind to examine the long-term and joint development during adolescent of three defining and suprising characteristics as somewhat a hallmark of the mental disorder, including the following: guilt, manipulativeness and irresponsible behavior.

"One of the reasons why researchers are studying earlier expressions of psychopathic personality traits is to better understand how psychopathy develops," Salihovic, doctoral student in developmental psychology and lead author of the study, said, via the press release. "Knowledge about the stability and change of these traits can help us pinpoint the developmental period when they are the least stable and therefore also more amenable to treatment."

The study examined 1,068 youths in the seventh to ninth grades from a Swedish city over a period of four years. Both sexes were represented in almost equal number and 92.5 percent of the youths were of Swedish decent. Psychopathic traits were measured with the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory, a self-report that's designed to capture these traits in those 12 years and up.

Results showed that the four subgroups of the youths were characterized by high, low and moderate levels of the mental problem, noting the following via the release: "As expected, most of the adolescents in the study had low to moderate levels of psychopathic traits that continued to decline with age. These youths had low levels of delinquent behavior and reported having warm and understanding relationships with their parents. However, for a small group of youths, these characteristics remained high and stable over the course of the study period. These teenagers maintained high levels of all psychopathic traits, despite having slight dips in the levels of the callous-unemotional traits and impulsive-irresponsive behavior that are so typical of psychopathy. Not surprisingly, these were the adolescents who also reported the highest levels of delinquency, and had the most difficult relationships with their parents."

More information regarding the study can be found via the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment.